Privacy Policy - Your Privacy Rights

I. Scope of the Privacy Policy

National Geographic Partners, LLC, a joint venture of the National Geographic Society and 21st Century Fox (collectively, “National Geographic,” “we” or “our” or “us”), understands the importance of our customers’ privacy. This Privacy Policy describes the treatment of information we collect from and about you when you visit our websites or use our services that contain a link to this Privacy Policy or otherwise refer to or provide the URL to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Services”). Our Privacy Policy also describes other sources we use to obtain information about you; tells you how we use, share and protect your information; and what choices you have about how your information is used.

Except as to those National Geographic sites and apps directed to children, including www.nationalgeographic.com/kids, www.littlekids.nationalgeographic.com, and certain online features specifically designed for children, all other content, products and Services are intended for general audiences and are NOT directed to children. We do not knowingly permit children under age 13 to register for any content, product or Service. We do not knowingly collect, use or disclose personal information about users under age 13, except as permitted by law. In recognition of the need to provide additional privacy protections for children, we have a separate privacy policy that applies to those sites and apps that are directed to them. To read the Kids' privacy policy, please click here.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to the National Geographic Genographic Project. If you are interested in information about or participating in the National Geographic Genographic Project, please read the Terms and Conditions and FAQs available on https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com for a description of how the National Geographic Genographic Project treats participant information.

For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “personal information” means information that identifies a specific person, such as full name or email address. When other information, such as email newsletter choices, magazine or product purchases, or consumer product preferences, is associated with personal information, this other information will also be treated as personal information under this Privacy Policy.

II. Information Collected

Information You Provide Directly to National Geographic

If you are interested in obtaining information, products or services from National Geographic, or participating in certain activities through the Services, you may need to provide us or our service providers with information about yourself. For example:

  • If you register for a Service to become a member, receive a newsletter, or get information about National Geographic promotions or events, you may be asked for your name, email address, mailing address, phone number and other information.
  • If you order a product from us or one of our business partners, you may be asked for your name, postal address, email address, telephone number and your credit card number.
  • If you are ordering a product as a gift for another person, you may be asked for that person’s name, postal address and phone number in order to enable us to deliver the gift to the recipient.
  • If you participate in an activity such as a survey or sweepstakes, you may be asked for your name, email address and birth date, and also to provide other types of information such as gender and personal interests, which may be associated with personally identifiable information that has been obtained from or about you.

Information We May Collect Automatically

In addition to information you choose to provide to us, National Geographic and our service providers also use standard technologies to automatically collect certain additional information. For example:

  • IP Address and Other Identifiers. When you access and interact with our Services, National Geographic and our service providers may collect information about your visits in order to permit you to connect to and obtain the Services and to understand the frequency with which specific visitors visit various parts of our Services. For example, we may collect your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, which identifies the computer or service provider that you use to access the Services, or information about your browser type, authentication identifiers, and other software and hardware information. If you access the Services through a mobile or other device we may collect your mobile device identifier, geolocation data (including your precise location), or other transactional information for that device. We may combine this information with other information that we have collected to make our Services and our communications to you more targeted to your interests.
  • Social Media Information and Content. If you access or log into a Service through a social media service or connect a Service to a social media service, the information we collect may also include your user ID and/or user name associated with that social media service, any information or content you have permitted the social media service to share with us, such as your profile picture, email address or friends lists, and any information you have made public in connection with that social media service. When you access the Services through social media services or when you connect a Service to social media services, you are authorizing National Geographic to collect, store, and use such information and content in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
  • Cookies. Our Services may also use cookies. Cookies are small text files that are stored on a user’s computer and allow websites to remember information about users. We and our service providers use cookies for a variety of purposes in order to enhance the quality of our sites. We use transient (also called “session ID”) cookies to provide continuity from page to page. A session ID cookie expires when you close your browser. We also use persistent cookies. Persistent cookies allow our online store and certain other parts of our site to recognize your browser when you return after your first visit to that part of our site. Cookies allow us to personalize your return visits to our site and to save you time during certain activities, such as checking out from our online store. You have the choice to set your browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is set. (Each browser is different, so check the "Help" menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences.) You can manage the use of Flash technologies, with the Flash management tools available at Adobe’s website, see http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html. It is up to you whether to allow us to send you cookies. However, if you do not accept cookies from us, your ability to use some aspects of our Services will be limited, such as our shopping cart feature or online games.
  • Web beacons and other tracking technologies. The Services may use other tracking tools, including so-called "pixel tags," "web beacons," "web bugs," "clear GIFs," etc. (collectively "Web Beacons") to collect user activity information about your activities on the Services. These are small electronic images embedded in web content (including online ads) and email messages and are ordinarily not visible to users. Like cookies, Web Beacons enable us to track pages and content (including ads) accessed and viewed by users. Also, when we send HTML-formatted (as opposed to plain text) emails to you, Web Beacons may be embedded in such emails to allow us to monitor readership levels so that we can identify aggregate trends and individual usage to provide our audiences with more relevant content or offers. Web Beacons in emails may recognize activities such as when an email was opened, how many times an email was forwarded, which links in the email were clicked on, etc. Web Beacons cannot be declined when delivered via a regular web page. However, Web Beacons can be refused when delivered via email. If you do not wish to receive Web Beacons via email, you will need to disable HTML images or refuse HTML (select Text only) emails via your email software.

Information Contained in User Content

Some parts of our Services may allow users to post or transmit messages, comments, screen names, computer files and other materials. If you choose to make personal information public through these Services, National Geographic will consider that information public and will not limit its use or disclosure in the manner described in this Privacy Policy.

Information From Other Sources

National Geographic and our service providers may supplement the information we collect from and about you with information from other sources, such as publicly available information from social media services, commercially available sources and information from NatGeo Affiliates or business partners.

Third-Party Online Advertising

Some of the advertisements you see on the Services are delivered by third parties who also collect information through cookies, web beacons, and other technologies that collect information about your online activities on this and other websites and apps in an effort to deliver advertisements that are tailored to your interests. These third parties also may use information about you that we provide, such as your age, gender, or interests, or the features within the Services that you use, to target and serve advertisements to you and to analyze the delivery of advertisements on the Services. However, we will not provide personal information about you to these companies, except as permitted under this Privacy Policy.

Third parties currently serve ads on our Services, and thereby may collect information about your online activities to deliver tailored ads. These companies may offer you a way to choose not to have your information used for advertising purposes. These and other third-party companies may also be members of the Network Advertising Initiative ("NAI"), which offers a single location to opt out of receiving tailored ads from member companies. To opt out or to obtain information about the technologies member companies use or their own privacy policies, please visit the NAI consumer opt out page. Also, through the Digital Advertising Alliance ("DAA"), several media and marketing associations have developed an industry self-regulatory program to give consumers a better understanding of and greater control over ads that are customized based on their online behavior across different desktop and mobile web browsers and apps. To make choices about interest-based ads from participating third parties, please visit the DAA consumer opt out page. You may download the AppChoices app at www.aboutads.info/appchoices to opt-out in mobile apps.

Do Not Track Signals

California Law requires us to disclose how we respond to “Do Not Track” signals. At this time, we do not respond to browser ‘Do Not Track’ signals, as we await the work of interested stakeholders and others to develop standards for how such signals should be interpreted.

III. Information Use

National Geographic and our service providers may use information that we collect from and about you for a variety of business purposes, including:

  • to maintain and manage your account, deliver content and services that you request, and enhance your experience on our Services;
  • to process and track your product or service orders and provide the Services and content you request;
  • to communicate with you about the content and Services or other products, content or services in which you may be interested, or to respond to your inquiries or comments;
  • to offer you branded or co-branded services, products, or features, such as travel services and products;
  • to deliver relevant advertising;
  • to perform business analyses or for other purposes to improve the quality of our business, the Services, and the products and services we offer; or
  • in accordance with your consent.

In order to make our content, Services and advertising more interesting and relevant to you, we may use the information we collect from and about you to make inferences and predictions about your potential areas of interest. When the information collected from or about you does not identify you as a specific person, we may use that information for any purpose or share it with third parties.

IV. Information Sharing and Disclosure

We will use and share your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy, including:

  • with entities that help us to manage and provide the Services, including development of our websites and applications, maintenance and support, personalization, payment processing, email distribution, measurement and improvement, sweepstakes/contest administration, booking, fulfillment, and operation of travel services and products, and promotions management, only to the extent that these entities need the information to perform their services or as required by law;
  • with the corporate affiliates of the National Geographic Partners and 21st Century Fox (collectively “NatGeo Affiliates”), National Geographic Society and entities that are authorized to use the National Geographic name to brand their products or services (such as National Geographic tour expeditions, the National Geographic MasterCard, and the National Geographic holiday greeting card program). A link to a website that lists NatGeo Affiliates can be found at www.21cf.com;
  • with identified entities whose products or services you specifically use or request to receive while you use the Services;
  • with our business partners, such as travel operators. Their use of your personal information will be governed by their own privacy policies;
  • with third parties in in the ordinary course of business in order to process your requests and fulfill your orders for video content offered through the Services;
  • with other selected third parties so that they may send you promotional materials about goods and services that they offer. You have the opportunity to opt out of our sharing information about you as described below in the section entitled “Your Choices”;
  • in response to legal process and when we believe that doing so is required by law, may be necessary to protect any person’s property, rights, or safety, or to investigate a potential violation of law, will help to enforce any terms of use or other legal agreement, or in the event of a corporate transaction, such as a divestiture, merger, consolidation, bankruptcy or asset sale;
  • in accordance with your consent.

V. Your Choices

You may opt out of having your personal information used or disclosed for certain purposes.

You can opt out of receiving promotional communications from National Geographic by contacting us at:

National Geographic Partners, LLC

Attn: Marketing Services - Privacy

1145 17th Street NW

Washington, DC 20036-4688

Telephone: 800-NGS-LINE (800-647-5463)

TDD: 800-548-9797

Outside the United States and Canada: 813-979-6845

If you no longer want to receive marketing-related emails from us on a going-forward basis, you may opt-out of receiving these emails be clicking “Unsubscribe” or “Update my Preferences” at the bottom of any marketing email you receive.

If you continue to receive our communications in error after expressing an opt-out preference, please let us know so that we can investigate the situation.

If you are under 18 and a registered user of the Services, you may request removal of content or information that you have publicly posted to the Services. To make such a request, please go to http://help.nationalgeographic.com/customer/portal/emails/new?t=638080. Please identify “privacy” as the subject matter of your request and select “User Content Removal” as the option that best describes your type of inquiry. Please also provide your name, email address, and a detailed description of your content removal request in the designated spaces. Please note that your request does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content or information, as, for example, some of your content may have been reposted by another user. There may also be circumstances where the law does not allow removal of your content even if requested.

You may request that we not share your personal information on a going-forward basis with National Geographic affiliates or unaffiliated third parties for their direct marketing purposes, you may opt-out of this sharing by visiting us online at www.ngprefs.com/general , or by contacting us using one of the methods below:

• By telephone toll-free – U.S. and Canada only: 1-800-647-5463; Outside the U.S. and Canada +1-813-979-6845

• Or send us a letter with your request to

   National Geographic Partners LLC, Attn: Marketing Services – Privacy

   1145 17th Street, NW

   Washington, D.C. 20036-4688

We will try to comply with your request(s) as soon as reasonably practicable. Please note that we are not required to respond to a customer's request more than once in a calendar year, nor are we required to respond to any request that is not sent through one of the methods designated above.

Remember that even after you cancel your account, copies of some information from your account may remain viewable in some circumstances where, for example, you have shared information with social media or other services. Because of the nature of caching technology, your account may not be instantly inaccessible to others. We may also retain backup information related to your account on our servers for some time after cancelation for fraud detection or to comply with applicable law or our internal security policies. It is not always possible to completely remove or delete all of your information due to technical constraints, contractual, financial or legal requirements.

VI. Third Party Sites

If you click on or interact with a hyperlink or advertisement that you find on the Services, you may leave our Services or send information to a different website or application. Our Privacy Policy does not apply to your interactions with third-party websites or mobile apps, even if you find a link to them on or access them through our Services, and so you should read the privacy policy of the third-party provider to see how your personal information will be treated on its site. We have no control over such third-parties, their Internet sites, or their products or services.

VII. Payment Services

In some cases we may use an unaffiliated payment service to enable you to purchase a product or make payments on a third party payment service provider website (“Payment Service”). If you wish to purchase a product or make a payment using a Payment Service, you will be directed to a page operated by that Payment Service. Any information that you provide to a Payment Service will be subject to the applicable Payment Service's privacy policy, rather than this Privacy Policy. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, any Payment Service's use of information collected through any Payment Service.

VIII. Information Security

We take a number of commercially reasonable administrative, technical, personnel and physical steps to safeguard information in our possession from loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure or modification. However, no method of transmitting or storing electronic data is ever completely secure, and therefore we cannot warrant or guarantee that such information will never be accessed, used or released in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy.

We will retain your information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is required or allowed by law.

IX. Visiting Our Services From Outside the United States

Please be aware that your personally identifiable information may be accessed from, transferred to, processed, and stored in any country where we have facilities or engage service providers. By using the Services or providing us with any personal information through the Services, you consent to the transfer, processing and storage of your personal and non-personal information in countries outside your country of residence, including the United States, where the data protection and other laws might be different from those in your country.

XI. Changes in This Privacy Policy

We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time by posting the most recent version of the Policy on the Services, along with an indication of the date on which the Policy was amended most recently. If we make any material changes in the way we collect, use, and/or share personally identifiable information that we collect about you through the Services, we will provide appropriate notification to you.

XII. Contact Us

If you want to access and correct your personal information, or have questions or wish to send us comments about this Privacy Policy, please write us at:

National Geographic Partners, LLC

Attn: Marketing Services - Privacy

1145 17th Street NW

Washington, DC 20036-4688

This policy was last updated as of February 9, 2016

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